I had just heard the series was cancelled, then started reading a bunch of great stories posted to this site. It inspired me to try and write one of my own. This is the first time writing a story, so please excuse any errors.
Dalton was the first of the team back on base, just the way he liked it. The team was returning from four months of well-deserved leave. Dalton liked getting there ahead of his team as it gave him a chance to get a lay of the land and get what he could settled before his team arrived.
As he walked into the barracks his first thought was that things were quiet. There were the normal base noises going on outside, trucks moving, troops moving, planes and helicopters taking off and landing. He didn't really think about it, passing it off as the overall empty feeling the barracks had when the team wasn't there.
He walked through to the sleeping quarters and dropped his bag by his bed. As he headed back through he thoroughly checked the rooms to make sure they were all in shape. If repairs were needed he wanted to get the necessary paperwork in tonight. His last stop was the kitchen area. Area was the best descriptor as the common area had no real walls or door separating each of the functional spaces. As he was reaching for the refrigerator door handle it dawned on him what his subconscious had been trying to tell him since he first walked in. There was no gentle hum coming from the refrigerator. It was quiet. He was almost afraid to open the door. The barracks had been unoccupied for a good week. Another team had made use of the space while they were on leave. If it was off for more than a day or two, anything left inside would be rotten.
He pulled on the handle and sighed with relief. It was clean and empty, except for some paper work and a note from the previous CO. Apparently the refrigerator had over died two weeks ago, was not repairable, and a replacement had already been requisitioned. He sighed with relief that the problem was already being managed. As he reviewed the paperwork it had an expected delivery date of yesterday. That was promising. He added visiting the supply depot to his list of jobs, hopeful he could get it delivered before the team arrived.
Dalton arrived back in the barracks hours later, rubbing the back of his head as he dropped down on the sofa in a combination of frustration and exhaustion. In addition to everything else he had to do, he must have spent 2 hours at the supply depot trying to pry the refrigerator out of their hands. It was there. When he walked in he quickly spied it in the back, and they eventually confirmed it. But the Lieutenant in charge of the depot was on leave until Friday and the Privates left behind to run things were relatively new to both the role and the base. They were only handling 'standard' and 'necessary' supply requests, and a refrigerator hardly qualified as either. He tried going above their heads but was hard pressed to come up with an argument on why he couldn't wait. He could hardly tell the Major that cold beer was a necessary supply item for the team. They would have to wait. And it wasn't just cold beer, having no refrigerator meant that they would be eating all their meals in the mess tent. He grimaced as he thought about it, the food, the lines, the crowds, it was inconveniently located on the other side of camp, and they didn't always operate on the same schedule as the rest of the base. He also knew his team would be just as thrilled about this as he was.
The next morning, shortly after 10:00 hours both Preach and McGuire arrived. "Hi Top, we're home" sang McGuire as they came through the door. Dalton had heard the transport plan land about 30 minutes prior and was expecting them. "Welcome back" he quickly replied, then looking behind them, he asked "where are Jaz and Amir? Weren't they on the transport with you?" "No" replied Preach, "there was some snafu and they were bumped along with about twenty other guys. They should be on the afternoon flight." "Ok, well let's get you two settled and do a supply run. We'll hit munitions first and then the supply tent after lunch." "But Top, we'll need to hit the supply tent before lunch, otherwise we'll have nothing to eat" countered McGuire. "Yeah, about that, we've had a slight change. I'll explain on the way, but as it is we'll only be picking up non-perishable items this run" replied Dalton dryly.
Jaz and Amir arrived in the late afternoon to an empty barracks, finding a note from Preach on the kitchen table "We're at the mess hall. We'll explain when you get here." They drop their bags by their beds and headed out. Luckily, they had snagged a jeep to get to the barracks in the first place, so it wouldn't take them very long to get over to the mess tent. As he drove Amir asked Jaz "any ideas what's up?" "No idea" she replied.
They entered the tent and joined the queue for food. Amir went first, and while Jaz was waiting to pick up her tray she scoped out the hall and quickly spotted her team on the far side. They were clearly laughing, having a good time and saving two seats in the steadily filling room. There was an empty chair between McGuire and Dalton, while Preach sat across with an arm draped across another. She noticed someone walk up to them carrying a tray and gesturing to the empty chair Preach was holding. There was a quick exchange and the soldier moved along. Preach then looked over at her, winked and smiled. She smiled back. It felt good to be home again.
A young soldier picked up the tray behind her, interrupting her thoughts, saying "Hi I'm Derek, I haven't seen you around here before, are you new?" Jaz glanced at him and gave him a small, tight smile with a small head tilt. Apparently, that was enough. "I bet you are new. I know there is a large changeover of personnel going on right now and I'm sure I would have noticed you before now if you weren't new. I've been here for three months. I'd love to show you around, help you get a lay of the land" continued Derek in a rush. Jaz looked to Amir and rolled her eyes, Amir gave a quick smile back. As the line slowly moved forward Derek continued talking. Jaz lost track of most of what he was saying. He was spouting long sentences in short, fast spirts. One burst was about what movies would be playing in the Rec Hall on which nights for the next week, another was about the PX and its lack of choices, as if the PX over here ever had an abundance of choices, and at one point he was talking about supplies. Did he mention toilet paper? She lost track. Her replies were in monosyllables and head nods, trying to be polite while trying to not actually engage in any conversation. And every time she looked at Amir his smile seemed to grow just a little bit bigger. The line was not moving fast enough for Jaz. If anything, it had steadily slowed down and felt like it was barely moving at all. Then she noticed that Amir seemed to be having a lot of difficulty in deciding what he wanted to eat. She gave him a quick elbow in the ribs and said softly his ear "you'd better decide what you want, and quick. The longer I'm stuck in this line the longer I have to plan my retaliation." Within minutes they were both clear and heading to the rest of the team.
"Finally, Jaz, what took you so long?" asked McGuire as they approached the team. "For some reason Amir couldn't decide what he wanted to eat this evening" was her sarcastic reply. Jaz swung in next to Preach, while Amir settled between Dalton and McGuire. "Welcome back" said Preach to them both "did you ever find out why you were bumped?" "No, they never really said" replied Amir "but I did hear talk about a Senator and his staff, so I'm wondering if that had something to do with it." "I heard talk about needing to accommodate some journalists" added Jaz.
They were barely settled and eating when McGuire said "So Jaz, it looks like you're already making friends. Who was that you were talking to in line?" "I don't know, I was barely listening to him" she replied. "He was really trying to get Jaz's attention" chimed in Amir. "Yeah, and you had to slow up the line to give him even more time to keep talking" Jaz shot right back. Amir started laughing "It was great, he was trying to tell her about the amenities at the camp, offering to give her a tour, show her the PX and the rec hall, and even offering to help her with getting any supply requests through, for anything not covered by the PX."
"Supply requests?" asked Dalton, sitting up and starting to pay real attention to the conversation now. "Who is this guy, point him out to me." Amir gestured to his left, "two rows down, far side of the table, five seats in, curly brown hair, name is Derek something." Dalton tried to look inconspicuously across the room, got a thoughtful look on his face and then looked meaningfully at Preach saying "I recognize him. He was there. I didn't talk with him, but he was there." Preach grinned back, "but do you think he would help us?" "I don't know, hey Jaz, how well do you know this guy?" asked Dalton. "He was just a very talkative guy behind me in the meal line" replied Jaz. McGuire quickly caught on and piped in "hey, wait, maybe we just need to send the right person on this particular mission." "What are you all talking about?" asked Amir. Dalton answered "The reason we're eating in the mess hall in the first place. Our refrigerator is broken, the replacement is stuck in Supply, and right now the soonest we will be able to get it is a week. That is, unless we get some help from someone who actually works in supply." "Don't you have a guy?" asked Amir. "Johnson retired, and McCormick is on leave until Friday. The rest of them are new since we took leave. I don't have any pull right now, and as I was explained to Preach and McG, I can't really go over their heads with cold beer and better meals as my justification." McGuire piped in "Perhaps if Jaz stopped by supply tomorrow and asked about it, he might be a little more motivated to help her out." "Wait, what? You can't be serious!" snapped back Jaz.
"You do know that once we get the refrigerator, we won't be back in this mess hall any time soon. That would not be a motivating factor for the young man" countered Preach. "Are you planning on telling him?" asked Dalton. "No, I'm just saying. If he figures out who we are, it won't go our way." "Top, I'm still not doing it" countered Jaz "I already have a problem with people not taking me seriously without adding actual flirting, or even the suggestion of flirting, to the mix." "Who said anything about flirting" countered McGuire, "I was just thinking you could ask nicely. You can talk to someone nicely, right? And keep in mind that there will be no yogurts, or ice cream or cold beer until we get this issue resolved". "I'm still not doing it" was her firm reply. "Alright that's enough for now" cut in Dalton "I was only thinking out loud when you mentioned supplies, I'm not asking anyone to do anything. We'll get the new refrigerator in a week. If you are all done eating let's head back to the hut, we still need to finish getting the cage organized and making sure our go-bags are packed. For all we know we might be spending the next week in the field anyway."
The next day, no one said anything about the refrigerator. While it had been fun teasing Jaz over dinner and McGuire added a few more comments that night, no one actually wanted to put her in a bad position. First, they respected her too much. But they also knew that she would take her revenge if they pushed her too far.
The following day Jaz was on her way back from the PX and found herself walking past the supply depot. The path she took was an unconscious decision. She was a good 10 feet past the entrance before she realized where she was and stopped. She pivoted on her right foot, turning around, and then 2 seconds later pivoted back. She was not going inside, she was not going to do it. She had re-started her walk back to the barracks when Derek jogged up to her, re-introducing himself "Hello again, it's me, Derek. We met the other night at the mess. I never got your name. I've been keeping an eye out for you at meals, but you're never alone. You always seem to eat with the same guys. By the way are you finding you way around alright?" His entire monologue came out in one big rush. "Hi Derek" answered Jaz, slowly, and then more normally "my name is Jasmine and I'm finding things fine. This is not my first time posted to Incirlik, I'm just back after some leave." "Oh" replied Derek "I didn't realize. So, I guess you know your way around without needing help" slowly trailing off. Noticing the PX bag he gestured to it saying "And I see you are still getting squared away" he continued. "Yeah just picking up a just a few items I forgot to pack" replied Jaz.
"So, what do you do when you are not visiting the PX or the mess hall?" asked Derek. "Mostly PT and drills with my team. The guys you always see me with are my team" answered Jaz. "Wait, your team? But I asked around and was told those guys are special forces." "Yes, we are special forces." "You, wait, your special forces too?" asked Derek in stunned disbelief. "Yes, I'm special forces too" she replied coolly.
Derek stood there for almost a minute in stunned silence and then finally said in an almost normal speed "I feel like such a fool. When we first met I just assumed you were in a support role, like me, and that perhaps we could be friends." "Well, we are both in support roles, in our own way. You help support the base, I help support my team. And you know there are no unimportant jobs, maybe some are less adventurous, but none are unimportant. And you wouldn't be stationed here if you weren't needed" Jaz replied gently. Derek started nodding his head with her reply. He then seemed to pull himself together and finally asked "Do you mind me asking, which team?" "I'm with Team 7, under Captain Dalton" "Team 7 … that sounds familiar. I just can't place it. Gee I wonder why that sounds familiar?" Derek trailed off, clearly racking his memory. Jaz hesitantly replied "umm, well, I understand my CO was in the other day asking about some supplies for our barracks."
"Oh, yeah, that's right, the refrigerator" he exclaims "that really stands out you know" he laughs and then continues "I understand we normally only provision those for offices" then more slowly, she could tell he was thinking while he was talking "but that one is slated to go to the older hangers on the far side of the base, those small ones that they re-purposed as barracks for the Omega teams. So, you're not just Special Forces, you're on an Omega team" he exclaimed. "Yes, yes I am" she gently replied.
After another good pause, Derek got a curious look on his face and asked "So, why do you guys need a refrigerator?" "Well as you pointed out, we are a long way from the mess hall. With missions we don't always operate on their schedule. It just makes things easier to have one in the hut." "But, what do you keep in it?" "Yogurts" said Jaz quickly. "Yogurts?" asked Derek. "Yes, yogurts, and you know the usual stuff, fruits, vegetables, meats and cheese ..." she trailed off. "So, you cook for yourselves?" asked Derek. "Yes, we mostly cook for ourselves. As I said, we don't always operate on a normal base schedule." "Well if we had a refrigerator in our barracks I know it would mostly contain beer" added Derek jokingly. Jaz laughed lightly, smiled and said "yeah, cold beer does sound good, doesn't it."
Same day, a few hours later a truck pulled up to the barracks, the driver got out and shouts "hey, is anybody here?" Dalton and Amir came out to see what was happening. "I have a delivery, a refrigerator, for Omega Team 7, that's you guys, right?" Dalton looked over at Amir, who looked right back, both surprised. "Yeah, that's us" replied Dalton to the delivery guy "you can bring it right in here." There was the sound of the back gate being dropped and general commotion as the delivery team started to unload the new refrigerator.
Three guys and twenty minutes later, "Just sign this here, and here is your copy. Oh, and there was a note I was supposed to give you guys, let me find it." He flips through his clipboard and pulls out a small folded piece of paper, handing it to Dalton. Dalton glances at the note, "Thank you for your service. Enjoy your yogurt. -D" and thanks the driver. He hands the note to Jaz saying "have any idea what this means?" "No idea" she replied innocently. "No idea, right" Dalton mumbled under his breath. Much louder he addresses the team "Ok, so Preach and Jaz, you hit the PX for beer. McG, Amir and I will hit the supply tent for our regular supply order. Now that we've got something to put it in, and were only asking for standard stuff, we should be good."
At the supply tent Amir dropped Dalton and McGuire at the front and drove around back to wait for pickup. Dalton and McGuire went in and walked up to the table that served as a counter. After handing over their paper work to an unknown private they stood waiting for the order to be filled. Dalton glanced around and spotted Derek, calling out "Hey, you're Derek, right?" "Yes" Derek replied hesitantly. "I believe we have you to thank for getting us our refrigerator" said Dalton. Walking up to the table Derek replied "Well, all the paper work was in order, it really was just taking up space here, and the Lieutenant would have just told us to deliver it when he returned."
"Well, we really appreciate it" replied Dalton "tell you what, to show our appreciation why don't you add a steak to that requisition order we just handed in and join us tonight at the hut, about 18:00 hours. We'll just be grilling steaks, having a few beers and throwing horse shoes, but you might enjoy it." Derek had a surprised look on his face, offers to hang out with Special Forces teams did not come around, like, ever. They kept to themselves, trained by themselves, and apparently ate by themselves. Dalton continued "Oh, um, I do need to warn you though, if the hut is empty and the grill is cold, then we're on a mission. So, if that happens it'll need to be a rain check for after we come back." "Yeah, sure. That sounds great!" replied a still excited Derek.
A few months later, the team headed into a larger hanger that had been setup to hold a USO show. As they approached the entrance they heard a "Hi Jaz, Hi Top, Preach, Amir, McG, I'm glad to see you guys were able to make it back for the show." The team looked over at Derek, a few gave nodded their heads, others did a quick two finger token salute while Jaz stopped and said "Hi Derek, how are you doing?" "Not bad, same old, same old. Haven't seen you around lately." "Well we've been a little busy" Jaz answered. "I noticed. I didn't mean to hold you up, I just wanted to say 'hi' and it's good to see your all back and still in one piece. I knew something was up when you guys hadn't stop by for your weekly provisions" Derek said, half joking, half serious. "Yeah, we landed back late last night. I didn't realize we were so predictable, we might have to change things up" she joked, continuing with "and I'm glad to see you're finally getting out of that supply tent."
As Jaz walked away to re-join her team she smiled to herself as she could hear his buddies converge all around Derek, all talking at once. "Wait, you know her?" "How do you know her?" "How do you know them? I mean, did you see, they all acknowledged you" "I've heard stories about that team. They are not a group you want to mess around with." Derek casually replied "Guys, guys, she's cool, they're all cool. But you are right, I sure wouldn't want to get on their bad side. I mean, if the stories they tell are even half true, I wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of things." "Wait, stories? when did you hear them telling stories?" "But seriously dude, how did you know them?" Derek smiled and casually said "Well, funnily enough, it all started with a refrigerator. Or rather, a broken refrigerator."